The Repentigny police officers who shot dead a black man with multiple bullets during the crisis in the summer of 2021 will not be prosecuted, the director of law enforcement and law enforcement said Thursday.
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“Police intervention was legal and based primarily on the police’s duty to ensure the safety of the citizens under their protection, as well as their own safety, from the moment the shooting began until the end of the shooting,” the DPCP wrote via a press release.
This is the decision made in light of the report prepared by the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI).
Marie-Mireille Bence had called the authorities around 7.30am on August 1, 2021 when her son, Jean René Junior Olivier, was no longer sleeping and saw people nearby who wanted to hurt him.
She then feared for both her own safety and that of the 37-year-old man, who had a kitchen knife with him.
Several police officers from the city of Repentigny were dispatched to the scene to make initial contact with the individual.
“At 7:54 a.m., a fifth officer with his Electro-Energy Weapon (EED) joined his colleagues. He shows the man his AIE and demonstrates it by activating the tips so the man can see how the device works,” the DPCP says.
For about fifteen minutes, the police tried to convince Jean René Junior Olivier to put down his knife. The 30-year-old obeyed the law enforcement officers, but eventually took his gun back without warning.
“He runs straight towards the agents positioned in front of him,” recalls the DPCP.
At this point, the police shot the man, specifically with the stun gun.
The death of Jean René Junior Olivier is later determined at a hospital center.
In its analysis, the DPCP recalls that police officers are protected by the Criminal Code when they are required to use force in connection with the application or enforcement of the law.
In this case, the accumulated testimony, supported by video of an ambulance driver, shows that “using their firearms was the only way to put an end to this threat.”
At the time, Marie-Mireille Bence sharply denounced the violence of the police operation.
“I am waiting for justice for my son,” she told the media.